Journalist: Aditi Srivastava
Page: 28, Afaqs Reporter magazine
Woohoo’s #theSuperGift campaign featured in the Afaqs Reporter magazine.
Category: News
Woohoo’s #theSuperGift campaign covered in the IMPACT magazine
Name of the Magazine: IMPACT
Name of the journalist: Neeta Nair
Link: http://digital.impactonnet.
Pg No: 32
Woohoo launches its new gifting campaign
As appeared on exchange4media.com on 11 March 2016.
—————————————————————————————
Woohoo, the go-to platform for gifting by Qwikcilver solutions, recently engaged with consumers to ask them: ‘What would really make them happy?’ in the context of gifting. This was done through a recently launched video: https://youtu.be/-C5Oszqz2fA
The campaign talks about how ‘We think we know everything about our loved ones. But do we really?’
A selection of different people that included siblings, mother-daughter and married couples were put through a small test. As part of the test, they were asked a simple question on what they would gift their loved ones to make them truly happy. An interesting observation that was noted at the end of the video was that the majority of people did not know what their loved ones actually wanted as a gift.
Woohoo presented the solution to this problem in the form of a small gift box in front of the participants, which comprised a mobile phone with the Woohoo app downloaded and a Woohoo gift card. This is the simplest and the most powerful way to gift someone we love, the freedom of choice from a world of brands, services and experiences.
Women’s Day: Cos taking steps to encourage gender diversity
As appeared in the Business Standard on 8th March 2016 by the Press Trust of India.
—————————————————————————————
In a bid to encourage a diverse, inclusive workplace companies are undertaking various initiatives, like ramping up women headcount, offering extended maternity leave and flexible hours among others.
Various research reports, white papers have been advocating the positive impact of promoting gender diversity in workforce and various women centric policies being offered by companies to retain their women staff.
To ensure an inclusive workforce, companies are opting for extended maternity leave, flexible working hours, adoption leave, creche allowance, committee on prevention of sexual harassment, identification of high potential women employees as a part of leadership talent planning process among others.
Ericsson said that it aims to have one-third of its employees as women by 2020. The company is hiring more female candidates in fields that used to be dominated by men.
Meanwhile, some companies are getting innovative and gifting their women employees gift cards to celebrate the international women’s day.
“We have witnessed increased interest by consumers & corporates to felicitate their lady colleagues and women. For Women’s Day, we have seen 125 per cent growth of Woohoo base of customers being gifted the Freedom of choice Via Woohoo Gift Cards vis a vis last season,” Smartcard technology company Qwikcilver CO-Founder and CMO Pratap TP said.
He further said across its base of over 400 corporates that Qwikcilver is closely integrated in India, this year has seen the preference for Woohoo-Travel related Gift Cards as the number one Choice among Women colleagues.
“Over the last one week, Woohoo App has also registered 44 per cent gifting taking place for Women’s Day related Gifting designs and greetings from across all the occasion based designs available,” he said.
Saurabh Nigam, VP-HR, Snapdeal said, “We are introducing a number of initiatives to further support employees going on maternity leave. We have further strengthened our mentoring, counselling programmes to assist women employees with career development, enabling them to take leadership roles.”
Meanwhile, Telenor India is taking conscious steps to promote diversity in its workforce and aims to have a right balance of women when hiring new employees for next few years. The company has also taken some of the following initiatives at the workplace to make it an all-inclusive workplace.
Piyush Mehta, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Genpact said some of the women centric initiatives being offered by the company include, Genpact Center for Women’s Leadership” (GCWL), initiatives to welcome new moms and Career 2.0 Program.
Under the Career 2.0 Program, Genpact would offer flexible, customised workdays to encourage such women to revive their career. Genpact plans to hire 30-50 mid-to-senior -level women in various roles this calendar year.
Qwikcilver Eyes Rs 2,000-cr Gift Cards by March-end
As appeared in The Economic Times on 6th January 2016 by Madhav Chanchani.
—————————————————————————————
Riding on the back of the fast growing Indian etailing market, gifting card solutions provider Qwikcilver sees the value of active cards on its platform reach . 2,000 crore by the end of March.` The company, which counts Amazon among its investors, expects to increase this value further five fold in the next three years.
Qwikcilver has over 150 brands on board, of which 30% are online players. Two years ago, online pla yers accounted for 10% of the brands on its platform. With proliferation of online brands, Qwikcilver also sees the share of digital gift cards increasing to 60% in three years from 20% now.
“We have 1.2-crore active gift cards in circulation, which we expect to increase to 2 crore by March,“ said Pratap TP, chief mar keting officer at Qwikcilver. Pratap cofounded the company along with Kumar Sudarshan in 2008.
Pratap said the weighted average value of cards is `. 2,500. Qwikcilver, which is backed by venture capital firms Accel Partners and Helion Venture Partners, charges merchants 1% to 3.5% of the activation value of cards.
While Flipkart was one its first ecommerce clients, the firm also has Cleartrip, Snapdeal, MakeMyTrip, Amazon, Hoopos.com and Yepme among its clients. The firm sells gift cards of Amazon and other brands online.
The gift-cards category has become one of the fastest growing segments for etailers. According to Amazon, the cards retail and corporate businesses has seen a 500% year-on-year growth in India.
For Qwikcilver, growth was not easy in the initial years. “We believe this growth should have happened three years ago,“ said Pratap.
The company raised $10 million in a round led by Amazon in December 2014.
Qwikcilver’s co-founders, Kumar and Pratap, featured on Zee Business
The co-founders of Qwikcilver Solutions Pvt Ltd, Kumar Sudarshan and Pratap TP, featured on Zee Business’ Kool Startups, The Big Idea.
The video highlights Kumar and Pratap’s entrepreneurial journey – the idea behind starting Qwikcilver to the inception and growth of Woohoo.in (Qwikcilver’s e-commerce platform that houses and offers gift cards from the country’s leading brands) and the Woohoo gifting app.
Besides sharing the details of their journey and acknowledging the role of the tremendous support they received from their family and friends in helping them build Qwikcilver to what it is today, Kumar and Pratap also share details of the complex yet sophisticated and seamless technology that they use to power and support the extensive and varied gift card programmes of partner companies (big players spanning across both the offline and online world).
The duo also provide some insights into the the adoption of the gift cards in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, the revenue models for B2B and B2C businesses and the plans of expansion in the coming years.
Can’t decide what to gift your loved one? This startup has an answer
As appeared in techinasia.com on 29 August 2015, by Nikita Peer.
————————————————————————
Last diwali Ritwik Sharma’s employer gifted him a dinner set. Expensive cutlery. A nice gesture, but it’s the seventh dinner set he owns, so it’s destined to wind up in his storeroom. Shreya Momaya dreads weddings- not because she can’t decide what to wear, but because she suffers from “can’t decide what to gift” syndrome.
Bangalore-based Qwikcilver launched Woohoo, a gift card store aimed at solving this problem. Woohoo has partnered with brands from 400 cities to give the gift receiver a choice of buying from categories like kitchenware, apparel, and jewellery. The cards can also be redeemed for experiences like a trip to the movies, dining out, visiting a spa, or travel.
“Gift cards have emerged as the preferred gifting option for trendy and tech-savvy early adopters seeking novelty. Woohoo embodies all the joy, fresh vibrancy, and positive imagery needed for any gifting occasion,” says Qwikcilver co-founder Pratap TP.
Woohoo’s gift cards can be delivered to loved ones via SMS, email, or Whatsapp as well as physically.
The startup has partnered with 150 online and offline brands including Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Titan, Madura garments, Croma, Pizza Hut, Makemytrip, Flipkart, and Amazon. Woohoo says it will add 1,000 new brands in the next year. The goal is to offer enough variety that anyone can find something they want.
The gift cards can also be decorated using a variety of colourful templates and personalization options of photos, stickers, or messages to add a special tinge. There are occasions-based themes like birthdays and anniversaries or festival occasions like Diwali and Christmas.
The startup recently acquired Sourcen, a mobile technology developer. The deal was actually an acqui-hire of sorts that added a team of dozen mobile app developers who were instrumental in launching Woohoo.
Unexplored territory
Qwikcilver, a six-year-old startup, was founded by Pratap TP and Kumar Sudarshan, engineers from India’s premier institutes BITS-Pilani. Back then, gift cards as a consumer-driven business was non-existent in India. Qwikcilver initially focused on developing tech tools for providing stored-value-card solutions and gift cards to retail brands. With a flexible SaaS platform, the startup manages the entire gift card program for retailers including design, storage, and transactions pertaining to it.
“The biggest challenge was driving adoption at multiple levels – enterprise level, business unit level, cross functional level, and ultimately by the consumer,” says Pratap. “The excitement for a startup is only triggered by the complexity of the game on hand. The pavement pounding over the years and the confidence reposed in our platform and by our customers through the years has driven our mission,” he adds.
Qwikcilver is the first startup in India that’s backed by Amazon. Last year, the startup secured US$10 million in a funding round from Amazon and existing investors Helion Venture Partners and Accel Partners.
Qwikcilver claims it is the only player in the global arena that operates in an integrated manner – across offline and online brands, retailers, and corporates. The startup addresses a market that is handled by multiple players internationally – Ceridian SVS for physical card processing, Cashstar for digital card processing, Blackhawk and Incomm for distribution are some of the players in the international segments.
“We are doing what VISA and MasterCard have done for the credit card industry,” says Pratap.
Qwikcilver processes 50 million transactions across physical cards, digital cards, and mobile based engagements annually in India. It claims the annual gross value of these cards is INR10 billion (US$151 million).
Some of its clients include Arvind retail, Madura Garments, Flipkart, Cleartrip, and Amazon. The startup plans to add 100 international brands mainly from Middle East and Asia Pacific.
“Woohoo would be an anchor to drive additional sales and footfalls for our strategic partner stores with an app based shopping experience,” says Pratap.
The market size of the gifting industry is US$30 billion in India. “Digital gift cards are the fastest growing mode of gifting,” says Pratap who claims to have captured a 90 percent market share.
In India, gifting has been given a center-stage during festivals and marriages. Since gift purchases take place within two days of the event, instant gifting options are poised to grow.
QwikCilver’s e-gifting store GiftBig is now Woohoo
As appeared in medianama.com on 5th August 2015 by Sneha Johari.
——————————————————————
E-gifting platform QwikCilver has launched e-gift and gift card store Woohoo.in, which it claims will work across 400 cities and over 150 brands, online and offline. The website has basically been consolidated from and will redirect from its previous offering GiftBig, its users will be migrated to Woohoo.in.
The company plans to add 1,000 new brands across categories in the next year and currently has gift cards from Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Tata Trent, Titan, Madura Garments, Croma, Cafe Coffee Day, Pizza Hut, Makemytrip, Cleartrip, Thomas Cook, Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra, PVR Cinemas among others. The platform will let users customise plastic and e-cards for multiple occasions and can be redeemed across online and offline stores, also using the mobile app.
QwikCilver claims to have around 90% of the prepaid and gift card market share, with over 100 brands across 20 categories like apparel, jewellery, dining, spa and travel among others. It claims to process over 50 million transactions annually across physical and digital cards across desktop and mobile in over 300 towns and cities.
Woohoo app: In April this year, after receiving a $10 million injection of funds from Amazon Asia Pacific, Accel Partners and Helion Venture Partners, Quikcilver launched a loyalty rewards points, gift card and virtual wallet app. The Woohoo app lets users pay through mobile online and offline and has partners in brands like Levi’s, Cafe Coffee Day, Cleartrip, Myntra, Payback and MobiKwik among others.
RBI wallet license: QwikCilver had secured a five-year prepaid mobile wallet license from RBI in August 2013 along with Mobikwik and Paytm. Amazon’s investment gave it access to QwikCilver’s semi closed wallet system, which would allow them to offer customers a digital wallet service for purchases from the site.
In March, Sanjay Tambwekar joined QwikCilver Solutions as its CTO. QwikCilver said that Tambwekar’s experience across technology practices would help QwikCilver to scale up their product platform suite and grow their enterprise architecture, e-commerce and m-commerce.
Set up in 2007, QwikCilver provides stored value card solutions to retail and corporate customers. It claims brands like Van Heusen, Shopper’s Stop, Peter England, Yahoo India, Nike, CCD, Levi’s, Microsoft among others as customers. QwikCilver provides gift, loyalty, discount, frequency, corporate campus and credit cards through its SaaS platform enabling a minimal upfront investment.
Qwikcilver launches Gift card Superstore – Woohoo.in
As appeared in techstory.in on 5 August 2015, by Dipti Gore.
————————————————————————————-
Qwikcilver Solutions, India’s pioneering Gift Card Company has announced the launch of Woohoo.in, India’s First Fully Integrated Mobile Responsive Online Gifting superstore. The platform aims to be a one stop destination for consumers for personal and occasion based gifting, and will allow them to choose from a wide array of gift card brands. The newly launched platform is mobile responsive, and enables consumers to transact from any mobile device, and gift on-the-go.
Through Woohoo.in, customers can send and receive gifts across more than 400 cities with the choice of 150+ trusted brands – be it offline or online, while also enabling the gift recipients to have the freedom to choose their own product and brand seamlessly. The platform gives consumers choices of gifting options not only in terms of brands but also allow them to choose from 20+categories including apparel, jewellery, home needs and so on. One can even gift experiences such as an entertaining day at cinema, exquisite fine dining, a relaxing spa or fun filled travel escapades. Woohoo.in has partnered with leading retail chains and brands including Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Tata – Trent, Titan, Madura garments, Croma, Cafe Coffee Day, Pizza Hut, Makemytrip, Cleartrip, Thomas Cook, Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra, PVR Cinemas and many more.
Commenting on the launch, Pratap T.P. Co-founder and CMO, Qwikcilver said, ‘Gift cards have emerged as the preferred gifting option by trendy and tech-savvy early adopters seeking novelty. The Woohoo brand embodies all the joy, fresh vibrancy and positive imagery needed for any Gifting occasion. Woohoo.in showcases and epitomizes the Indian consumers Gifting aspirations and needs today with this novel online destination.”
He further added, “The platform offers a unique Mobile gifting experience with a wide range of gifting options, instant Gifting delivery and multiple modes of gratification. Giftbig.com, the ecommerce site for Gift cards will seamlessly migrate into Woohoo.in. The consumer base of Giftbig.com would be redirected to our new Woohoo.in site. Woohoo.in is looking at adding 1000+ new brands across categories in the next one year.
Woohoo.in provides consumers quick access to gift cards of reputable brands, both plastic and e-cards. The extensive personalization feature allows consumers to customize their gifts for various personal occasions ranging from Birthdays, Anniversaries; and festival occasions like Diwali, Raksha Bandhan and many more, making the whole process of selecting and buying a gift much simpler. The gift cards can be redeemed at the online and offline stores and also used to shop at thousands of new places using the Woohoo mobile app.
Gift cards are a 3000 crore industry in India. Qwikcilver has established and reinforced the Prepaid & Gift Card Qwikcilver Network in Indian retail – with close to 90% share of the customer engagements across 100+ power brands in 20 consumption categories. The Qwikcilver Network has grown by 300% year-on-year for the last 4 years and currently processes over 50 million transactions across physical cards, digital cards and Mobile based engagements across card transactions annually in 300+ towns & cities.
Qwikcilver recently launched one-of-its-kind innovation in retail, Woohoo App that aggregates multiple payment options in a single platform, for consumers to transact at various retail outlets – offline and online. Consumers can use Woohoo as the single Mobile App for their transactions, be it buying in retail, having a meal in a restaurant, or buying a ticket online.
Qwikcilver Solutions, is a single-stop provider for all kinds of stored value card based solutions for Retailers, service providers and corporates (to power convenience and operational efficiency programs like Campus Cards, Incentives and Benefits Card).Qwikcilver is well poised to enable its customers derive the maximum benefit out of the card programs.
Qwikcilver’s mission is to play a transformational role in driving footfalls and transactions across offline & online segments with innovative technology powered solutions. Qwikcilver has pioneered and established significant leadership of the Prepaid & Gift Card category in India. Through Woohoo, Qwikcilver is targeting the end consumer by giving them maximum benefit out of available currency options.
Amazon-backed QwikCilver merges GiftBig with newly launched online gift store Woohoo.in for mobile first play
As appeared in techcircle.vccircle.com on 4 August 2015, by Binu Paul.
—————————————————————————————————-
GiftBig.com, run by Bangalore-based QwikCilver Solutions Pvt Ltd, has been re-branded to Woohoo.in, as it seeks to morph into a mobile-first online gifting superstore for consumers.
“The (new) platform offers a mobile gifting experience with a wide range of gifting options, instant gifting delivery and multiple modes of gratification. Giftbig.com, the e-commerce site for gift cards will seamlessly migrate into Woohoo.in. The consumer base of Giftbig.com would be redirected to our new Woohoo.in site,” said Pratap TP, co-founder and CMO of QwikCilver.
The company will continue to provide the back-end technology for B2B transactions related to plastic gift cards, loyalty cards, code programmes and social media gifting of various brands, said Pratap. Moreover, the desktop version of woohoo.in will also lend itself to gifting transactions.
Pratap further stated that Woohoo is looking to add more than 1,000 new brands across categories in the next one year.
Woohoo.in provides consumers with gift cards of reputable brands that can be redeemed at online and offline stores. These can also be used to shop on Woohoo mobile app, which was launched in May this year to enable aggregation of payment options and to pay retail outlets through mobile. The app allows retailers to accept multiple currencies. Similarly, it would allow currency partners like Oxigen wallet and loyalty rewards programme points under Payback to be accepted across thousands of retailers.
Qwikcilver was founded in 2008 by the duo of Pratap and Kumar Sudarshan. It works on a Software-as-a-Service model (SaaS), enabling customers to launch the stored value card program with minimal upfront investment and provides suite of services to create, deploy and manage the programme.
Last year, the company had raised $10 million in a funding round led by e-commerce giant Amazon. The firm’s existing investors Helion Venture Partners and Accel Partners also participated in the round.
The company claims that the Qwikcilver network has grown by 300 per cent year-on-year in the last four years and that it currently processes over 50 million transactions across physical cards, digital cards and mobile-based engagements.
At present the gift-card market in India is estimated at $500 million (over Rs 3,000 crore) and projected to treble over the next two years.
Recently, Mumbai-based GCI Network Pvt Ltd, the company behind the online gifting platform GiftCardsIndia, had raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Blume Ventures and Google India head Rajan Anandan in December last year. It also acquired social gifting venture Giftery for an undisclosed amount.